Many imaging devices, such as printers, facsimile machines, etc., employ an ink-jet cartridge for printing on a printable medium, such as paper. During printing, the ink-jet cartridge moves across the printable medium while depositing images on the printable medium. Many inkjet cartridges include a print head and a body. The body usually has an ink reservoir and an ink delivery channel for delivering ink from the ink reservoir to the print head. Print heads usually include a print-head die, e.g., formed on a substrate of silicon or the like using semi-conductor processing methods, such as photolithography or the like. Printhead dies typically include a slot for receiving ink from the ink reservoir via the ink delivery channel. Many print-head dies also include resistors for vaporizing ink received from the slot. This causes the ink to be ejected through a set of orifices of the print head so as to print dots of ink on the printable medium.
Multicolored ink-jet cartridges are used for color ink-jet printing. Multicolored ink-jet cartridges usually include a body having a plurality of ink reservoirs, each for containing a different colored ink, and an ink delivery channel connected to each of the ink reservoirs. Many multicolored ink jet cartridges also include a print head having a print head die with plurality of slots respectively connected to a different one of the plurality of ink reservoirs via the ink delivery channel of the respective ink reservoir. Each of the slots respectively delivers ink to different a set of resistors of the print head die for vaporization and subsequent ejection through a corresponding set of orifices of the print head.
In one application, a multicolored ink-jet cartridge has a print head with a print head die having slots aligned on a single axis that is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the ink-jet cartridge during printing. This is known to improve print quality and to reduce the size, and thus the cost, of the print-head die. Each of the slots of the print head die respectively aligns with a different outlet port of the cartridge body. Consequently, the cartridge body has multiple outlet ports aligned on the single axis. Each of the of outlet ports is respectively connected to a different ink reservoir of the cartridge body by an ink delivery channel.
Some of these ink-jet cartridges have an ink reservoir located on either side of the single axis, and the ink delivery channel of the ink reservoir on either side of the single axis forms an angle with respect to the single axis. The cartridge body is usually a one-piece injection-molded part, and a mold-slide-insert forms the ink delivery channel on either side of the single axis during molding. This typically requires two mold-slide-inserts, one for the channel ink delivery channel on either side of the single axis. After molding, one of the two mold-slide-inserts extends through the cartridge body on one side of the single axis, and the other extends through the cartridge body the other side of the single axis. The two mold-slide-inserts are removed from the body, leaving behind two openings (or mold-slide-insert access holes) in the cartridge body on either side of the single axis. A plug subsequently seals each mold-slide-insert access hole.
Using two mold-slide-inserts as described above often requires using relatively slender mold-slide-inserts that can be fragile and susceptible to excessive creep and that may require excessive maintenance. Moreover, the use of two plugs and two mold-slide-inserts can be costly from a manufacturing standpoint.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below that will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for the present invention.